Darfur rebel JEM demands one-on-one peace talks
March 16, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — A powerful Darfur rebel group on Sunday demanded one-on-one peace talks with the Sudanese government, saying it was the only viable insurgent force left in the war-torn region.
JEM’s call is likely to enrage leaders of other Darfur rebel factions which claim substantial support in Sudan’s remote west.
It was also a further blow to current faltering peace efforts which have sought to include numerous rebel splinter forces together with women’s groups and other civilian organisations in negotiations.
“JEM is ready for talks in Tripoli (Libya’s capital). But they should be one-on-one talks with the Sudanese government,” Ibrahim said.
“And we want them to deal with the problems of marginalised regions across all of Sudan, not just Darfur. Dealing with one region and then moving on to the next region prolongs the suffering,” he told Reuters.
Ibrahim spoke a day before a round of informal meetings in Geneva between the mediators of the current peace efforts — the U.N. and the African Union — and representatives of countries involved as observers and “regional partners”.
The U.N.’s Darfur envoy, Jan Eliasson, and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim hoped to end the festering Darfur conflict with negotiations that started in the Libyan city of Sirte in October.
But the proceedings fizzled out after JEM and other prominent rebel bodies boycotted the talks. Eliasson and Salim have been trying to persuade rebel groups to arrange a fresh round of negotiations ever since, but so far only a handful of factions have agreed.
MAIN PLAYER
JEM initially said it would take part if only two other rebel groups joined it at the negotiating table.
But Ibrahim on Sunday said that no other groups should now be involved: “The main players in Darfur are JEM. There are really no other groups in Darfur apart from JEM.” Other factions, he said, were just a “media phenomenon” with no real support in the ground.
JEM is thought to have the largest military rebel force in Darfur and has gained extra prominence in recent months through a series of clashes with government forces. But other groups, chief among the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by founder Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur, have huge support among Darfur’s displaced populations.
Ibrahim said other regions would include neighbouring Kordofan, where JEM clashed with government forces last year, and the country’s east, which ended a low-level insurgency against the government in 2006.
He said he was also unhappy with the current two-man mediation team, saying one figure should be responsible, ideally Kofi Annan.
A spokesman from the joint U.N./AU mediation team declined to comment on JEM’s proposals.
International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in the five years of revolt in Darfur, which borders Chad.
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing the central government of neglect. But rebel divisions and the government’s mobilisation of mostly Arab tribal militia have created a mix of armed groups and a breakdown of law and order.
Washington calls the violence genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use and Khartoum rejects.
(Reuters)